The Gods of Panem
by LainaFantasy
Summary: Many years have passed since Percy Jackson saved the world. As the Olympic gods weaken and technology becomes better, the government has come up with a way to almost completely keep the gods out. Apollo, however, decides to risk living among mortals.


A/N: This is just a quick one-shot that I wrote a few months ago. Reviews are welcome. I'll try to make improvements after I've gotten a few reviews to work with.

Centuries after Percy Jackson lived on earth, the gods faced yet another war. They expected to weather the storm like always, but this time was more difficult. In the end, the gods defeated their enemies, but at the cost of entire countries. Billions of mortals were killed. America was all but entirely destroyed. From the ashes of America a new country was formed: Panem. Panem didn't hold to or embody Western Civilization like America did, but the whole world had been knocked away from history and tradition, so the gods didn't have anywhere else to go. They stayed with Panem and tried to influence its growth to be more suitable so that it could sustain them, but their powers were severely drained after the conflict, and the lack of a center of Western Civilization wasn't helping them recover. Thus, when a dictator took over Panem, there was little that they could do to interfere. The years went by and eventually the people of Panem rose up in rebellion. The gods didn't even try to help, since they knew that if they got involved, more of their old enemies would re-awaken. Their demigod children worked against the oppressive government, but, in the end, it didn't work. Panem was worse off afterwards then beforehand. The gods were so weakened by the conflict that they could be restrained by the Capitol's technology. The Capitol then used their power to keep the gods from being able to manifest themselves within Panem. The only way they could appear at all would be if they restrained their powers so much that they could not be detected, at which point they were powerless anyway. The dictator then declared The Hunger Games as an excuse to kill off all demigod children. He rigged all of the Choosing Ceremonies for the first few years so that only demigods and children of demigods would be chosen. Meanwhile, the gods kept entirely to Olympus, not daring to attempt to enter Panem. They merely cowered in fear and hoped that they might one day regain their power and uproot the Capitol. Thus, after 18 Hunger Games, there weren't any demigods eligible to be taken, and there weren't that many children of them left either, so the Hunger Games started to honestly take children at random.

Decades passed. The gods started to accept that they would never be as powerful as they used to be. Eventually, Apollo decided that he would try a normal, mortal life. Though the Capitol was less watchful of the gods, he still had to hide his power and take on a mortal form. He quietly slipped from District to District, trying to figure out what he would do. When briefly visiting District 12, he ran across a beautiful woman talented in healing. They talked for hours about medicine and healing. He visited her often. Over time, they fell in love. Apollo took on a fake name and entered the system quietly as a coal miner so that no one would notice. He figured that he could open a shop or something later. He got married not long afterwards, and they had two children: Katniss and Primrose. He knew that his children wouldn't have as great of powers as demigods were in days gone by, but he was proud of his daughters all the same. Katniss had his archery powers. In many ways, she reminded him of his sister Artemis. Primrose, on the other hand, was definitely a healer. Even from a young age she took everything her parents told her about healing to heart. As the years went by, Apollo kept trying to open a shop, but the amount of money required was too much. He couldn't pay the fees. He continued working as a coal miner with the patience of an immortal, hoping that he would one day make enough money to open up that shop.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. As Apollo tried to get a loan for a shop or to get a healer to take him on as an employee, the government noticed that he was really good at healing. Too good, actually. They checked the records and figured it out that something didn't fit. When they scanned him, they found that, although he had done a very good job of hiding his godly powers, he didn't do a perfect job. In order to eliminate him, they decided to obliterate him as completely as possible, so they blew up the entire coal mine. Apollo was reduced to nothing more than an echo, barely having any existence at all. When Artemis found out, she was stricken with panic and grief. She rushed to the site of the explosion. She detected just the faintest echo of Apollo's power, but she took that echo back to Olympus. She used her strength to reinforce Apollo's existence. She knew it would be decades, maybe centuries, before he recovered, if he ever did.

Meanwhile, Katniss and her family were deeply grieved. Even Katniss's mother didn't know that her husband was immortal, though the knowledge would have been little comfort with Apollo being so weak. From afar, Artemis watched their struggles, knowing that she could not risk entering Panem again to help them. As she watched Katniss hunting, she was proud of her niece. She couldn't help but to think that if Katniss had been born in a different time, perhaps Katniss would have become a Hunter. As it was, Artemis couldn't risk trying to recruit girls to be Hunters, and she couldn't spare her power to grant them improved strength and immortality. She spent all of her time and energy trying to restore Apollo's power.

Years went by, and the Districts rose up in rebellion against the Capitol. This time, as told in Mockingjay, civilization won. Western Civilization found a home in this third Panem. The gods were strengthened. They did not have all of their former glory back, at least not all at once, but they did get far better.

Over a decade after the revolution, Katniss was sitting with her husband Peeta, watching their two children play when Artemis approached them as a young woman and said, "Katniss Everdeen? Or should I say Katniss Mellark?"

"Either is fine. What do you want?" Katniss asked.

"There is someone who wants to see you."

Katniss glanced over to Peeta before following Artemis warily. Artemis led her into a nearby, abandoned building.

When Katniss walked in, she nearly collapsed to the ground in shock. All she could do was to stare at the person walking over to her. He was her father. He looked just as he did the morning before he died, like no time had passed at all.

"Hello, my dear Katniss," he said.

Katniss could not speak.

"I'm sorry that it took so long for me to visit," he continued. "As soon as I was well enough, I requested to see your sister first. It took forever for Hades to process my request, but I finally got to see her. She's in Elysium. She's considering rebirth, though she has decided to wait for you to come first."

Katniss still did not speak.

"Do you know who I am?" Apollo asked.

"You're… my father," Katniss whispered hesitantly.

"Do you know what I am?"

"…what… do you mean?"

"You know those old stories that I would tell you and your sister?"

"The ones with the Greek gods?"

"Yes," Apollo answered. "My dear child, we have a lot to talk about."


End file.
